The leaves for the Waggy are pretty soft, which is suprising to me. I would've thought that they were stiffer, considering what they came off of! I like the leaves vs. coilovers for the shear simplicity of it all. I mean really, we've had since the 1800's+ to get them dialed in. I like something I can fiddle with. Heck, the rear springs are a super-hybrid of Chevy 1/2 ton springs, a Titan Add-a-leaf and the main spring is the Xterra one! Flexes real good!
The front portion of the kit is the SAS kit for the Hardbodies. Yes, it is wide enough. Although the where I put the rear shackle mount was a bit forward that it was supposed to be, it still works great! Like I said before, to put it where it
should be, I'd have to modify the body mount a bit to do it. In hindsight, even that wasn't going to be hard. I should've just done that. But, being the first (as far as I know) to put the Calmini HB kit on an X, I think it went pretty good.
Calmini could help with things like selling their pitman arm for the Xterra steering upgrade seperatly. It's perfect for this!
You know what I really like about springs? I love that it won't take much to lift it to whatever I want, any time I want. I don't have to change radius arms, drop brackets, etc..
And, I can call a ton of places to get custom leaves made! Alcan, for instance, will put in those Orbit Eyes, I can order heavier duty springs, relocate the axle simply by having the center pin drilled wherever I feal like, it's totally customizable! Once I get a slip yoke eliminator for the rear, and move a stupid crossmember, I can let the ass end drop out like a turd from a running deer! It's awesome!
Oh, and what vehicle did I scavenge? A 78 Ford F150. You can even order the axles for the 9" drilled for the Chevy lug pattern, so no having to get new rims. Then, for the front, use the outers from a mid 70's Chevy D44 for that famous High Steer action. Then, you've got the Chevy bolt pattern all the way around!
I ended up using all stock axles for now. So I had to keep the Ford bolt pattern (5 on 5.5"). I used the Chevy outers, for the high steer, but then reconverted the spindle back to the Ford pattern. I had a set of rims and tires already for the Ford, so it was just a matter of convenience at that point. A couple of trips to the junk yard, and I had most of what I needed.
The brakes are the Chevy ones. I bought a flaring tool and reflared all the lines (replacing the flare nuts with SAE 3/8" ones) to go to the Chevy 4" extended lines. Worked great, and saved a bundle on line adapters. A little hard work saved a bunch of cash!
The wheels at the back are 65" Wheel Mounting Surface (WMS) to WMS. The fronts are a bit wider, but nothing I feel like correcting. Even the factories put the fronts a bit wider for tracking purposes. The front is at 66 1/2" WMS to WMS due to the conversion to high steer, and then back to Ford spindle. Drives nice!
A long ways from this...
Yes, that's Ian and Erik walking the wounded out, Jorge's driving.